DIVISION I-A ROUNDUP : Riverside North Blows Past Huntington Beach

All the wrong things happened to Huntington Beach in a 77-52 loss to Riverside North in the Southern Section I-A quarterfinals Friday night at Edison High.

North pulled Huntington Beach out of its preferred match-up zone with jump shots by forward Edward Gray. When Huntington Beach reluctantly switched to a man-to-man defense, North drove past for easy layups. Huntington Beach wanted a slow-paced, low-scoring game, but it didn’t turn out that way.

It was North’s 21st consecutive victory and moved the Huskies (26-2) into Tuesday’s semifinals against Cajon, a 65-64 winner over Los Alamitos. Second-seeded North has lost only to Lynwood, 85-67, and Capistrano Valley, 72-56.

Huntington Beach ends its season 18-11.

“The problem is when you go in with a game plan and then get down by that much, that game plan goes out the window,” Huntington Beach Coach Roy Miller said. “We wanted to stay in a zone as long as we could. They’re just too tough to play one-on-one.”

The Oilers faced serious defensive problems no matter which way they tried to match up with North.

Gray scored 10 of his game-high 26 points in the first quarter, helping North gain a 16-4 lead. Gray, a junior, opened the second quarter with a three-point basket, Quincy Brewer drove for a layup, Gray hit a pull-up jumper and Brewer scored on a fast break for a 25-4 Husky lead.

The rest of the game was mere formality. Huntington Beach was unable to make a serious run and by halftime, North led, 42-20. The Huskies didn’t let up and increased their lead to 58-25 by the end of the third quarter.

Brewer, a guard who has signed with Arizona, finished with 21 points, all in the first three quarters.

Tony Gonzalez had 15 points and Matt Ambrose added 12 in a reserve role for Huntington Beach.

“I’m sure we completely took them out of what (Miller) wanted to do,” North Coach Mike Bartee said. “I would think they wanted the score in the 40s or 50s. We wanted an up-tempo game with fundamentals. We want to harness our athletic ability.”

Miller said he was impressed by North’s restraint.

“They do all that and they’re still playing under control,” he said. “That’s what makes it so difficult to play against them.”

Huntington Beach needed to be nearly flawless simply to stay close to North and it certainly didn’t help the Oilers cause when they trailed by 21 points early in the second quarter.

In another I-A game:

San Bernardino Cajon 65, Los Alamitos 64--Shaun Battle made two free throws with one second left to get third-seeded Cajon past visiting Los Alamitos.

Battle, a senior center who has signed with UC Irvine, finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds. Junior guard Mack Tarver scored 14 points and had eight rebounds for Cajon (25-2).

Jason Cunningham led Los Alamitos (19-10) with 23 points. Tim Lin, who had 13 points, made two free throws to put the Griffins ahead, 64-63, with 12 seconds left.